SYDNEY SCENE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 210, 6 September 1939, Page 7

SYDNEY SCENE.

HEAT IN AUGUST.

NEW GAMBLING GAME.

HIGHER HOTEL TARIFFS

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, August 31

Even with everyone's thoughts preoccupied with the war crisis people? have been commenting this week on the freak weather of the last few days. A spell as warm as summer, but accompanied by high winds, set in last Friday and on Monday the official shade temperature reached 82 degrees, the highest August reading for 56 years. Only two or three hundred miles away, Kosciusko

was experiencing a severe snow storm

It has been announced that when the police are free from their emergency duties, they will look into a new fashion at sporting and other registered clubs. The new craze is the punch board which made its appearance sub rosa in Xew Zealand two or three years ago. It consists of a square of wood with holes into which numbered pieces of rolled paper had been forced. A pin is used by a player who punches any hole he likes and draws a piece of paper which may be a non-payer, or on the other hand, may entitle him to a token redeemable in goods at the club.

The boards made their appearance in the clubs immediately after the banning of poker and fruit machines. They are a desperate attempt by the clubs to recoup themselves for the heavy loss of revenue which the poker machine ban has caused them. Most clubs charge sixpence a punch, with prizes ranging! from 1/ to 7/6. A person who punches any of the 10 hundreds on a board with a 1000 holes has a chance of winning a special prize of £2 2/ for a secret number which is revealed when the board has been punched out. The boards are imported from America and distributed on the quiet at prices ranging from 7/6 to 21/. °

Picking Winners by Stars. A Newcastle dentist, William Gihbie Wyllie, <>2, who «a.> said to pick winners at the races by studying the stars, appeared in the Police Court there this week charged with the fraudulent misappropriation of £500 from Mrs. Ada Violet Solomon. It was allejred that she had given the money to Wyllie, who had been managing a dental practice for her. to purchase another dental practice in Sydney in which her two sons would jl>e engaged, her husband having died. Detective-Sergeant Alford said that ■ when he asked Wyllie what had become of the £.">OO, Wyllie said he had lost! every penny of it at the races. In Wyllie's room the detective found: several race books and note books, j When asked about the notebooks I Wyllie said that he studied astrology' land by its aid worked out what he! I thought would be the winners at the 'races. He was committed for trial. Canberra Hotels Accused. I l When the Federal Parliament re-1 assembles next week, questions will be! asked about sudden and stiff increases in Canberra hotel tariffs in anticipation of the arrival of the Duke of Kent. It i* said that the hotelkeepers have not 'only boosted their tariffs but are refusing to keep their permanent guests jexcept on a casual basis until the exIpected tourist traffic, when the Duke of 'Kent arrives, dies down. One hotel, j which last week increased its permanent rate from £4 7/6 to £5 10/, has j now told its guests that they must pay |the casu.il rate of £6 10/ a week. Rates | for ordinary double rooms have been increased to £2 5/ a day. or £13 a week; ja single suite costs £2 daily or £12 j weekly and a double suite, consisting of bedroom, sitting room and bathroom costs £3 a day ov £18 a week.